Registrars’ choice

During the Minnesota Deputy Registrar Association meeting in Waseca Thursday, October 20, state representative John Petersburg was awarded the Legislator of the Year Award, an honor earned by only one state legislator per year.

Petersburg, running for election in newly drawn House Seat 19B, is a Republican who has served five terms in District 24A. He currently serves on the Ways and Means Committee, the Preventing Homelessness Division, and the Transportation Finance and Policy Committee. Petersburg has represented the Minnesota Deputy Registrar Association in the latter and takes pride in his work with moving transportation forward statewide.

“I’ve been involved with transportation through all the years since I was first elected as a representative,” he claimed. “I’ve been in every transportation committee there ever was in my time as representative. I’ve served as the vice chair of the transportation committee a couple terms, and this last term I’ve been the minority lead in transportation.”

Petersburg received word that he was awarded the Legislator of the Year Award sometime around September. “To be honest, I wasn’t even aware that I was considered as a nominee. I’ve been working with the Department of the Registrar since the MNLARS [Minnesota Licensing and Registration System] fiasco which caused a lot of headaches.”

Representative Petersburg works hand in hand with associations like MRDA to ensure transportation issues, processing fees on licenses, and other rules and regulations undergo as smooth of a process as possible.

“The deputy registrar falls under the responsibility of public safety,” he explained. “Rules and regulations on how to get licenses and process fees fall under the Department of Transportation because the fees collected come back to us. We set up the appropriation to fund their needs in the budget.”

The MRDA represents all license bureaus and registrars in Minnesota. Figuring out solutions to make all issues concerning transportation as smooth as possible is what the association and its president Jeff Orth are all about. “We want to work with everyone to be the best we can be,” he said. “As president, I’m an advocate for this office to be successful and to make sure we keep our good reputation.”

Part of MRDA’s meeting was about how to tackle inflation, which is currently a major topic on all fronts. With expenses on the rise, the registrar’s association is seeing a need to raise fees. “The only way we can get our fees increased is by going to the state legislature,” Orth elaborated.

However, disagreements between the two parties have made it difficult for them to do their jobs, according to him. “One side wants one thing while the other wants a different thing, and in the meantime, we don’t get anything. That’s been what’s happened the past few years.”

He added that the registrar has legislation on fees that were close to being passed. But with elections coming up, things are still unclear. “Everything is up in the air right now, and I can respect that. But we want to work with everyone to be the best we can be. Whether the governor is a republican or democrat, at the end of the day, we want to provide good service.”

The MRDA wants to work to make sure that licensing bureaus are not burdening the taxpayers. If so, some licensing bureaus can go the way of Bloomington’s registrar which closed down recently. “Minnesota is above average in registrar service, and we want to keep it that way,” Orth stated.

Orth explains that this interdependency is why MRDA values legislators like representative John Petersburg who work to keep things operating smoothly. “It’s always good to have somebody like Petersburg in our corner,” Orth said.

Petersburg believes the best way for the MRDA and the state of Minnesota to succeed is to get inflation under control so that fees don’t increase heavily. “It’s not something the state can fully control,” he admitted. “But what states like Minnesota can do is start dealing with some of the fees and regulations that we have and fixing our tax structure so that we can keep more money in taxpayers’ pockets.”